Yugioh: Apotropaism
by grandkaiser
Summary: A neo-utopian city - Cypher; a marvelous city in the sky is the home of one Hiro Kagami an aspiring duelist who simply wants to be one of the best. Beneath the surface of this utopia, however, is a corrupt underworld connected to the recent jump in missing persons...


**Off the bat, I'd like to thank you all for reading;**

** I do want to say that not all custom cards featured in this story belong to me (Example: Burning Knuckler - Lowblow) and you may find them on the YCM Wikia.**

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**Protos**

"Apotropaism, noun, the use of ritual or other magical means to avert evil." Out of the few things Hiro Kagami paid attention to during his lesson, this was one of the few that actually interested him. "Any questions, Hiro?" This red-headed youth hesitated, despite having made up his mind to end the lesson as quickly as possible, before shaking his head "Nothing, Sir." Hiro proceeded to pick up his bag, throwing one strap over his right shoulder and leaving the other hanging, and exited the room.

Hiro himself was a young adult in his later years, on the verge of turning 19, in his last year at Cypher Upper Academy. His traditional wear was a white sleeved jacket, the rest of it being red; save for a few golden designs of some tribal image on the upper torso of each side. Beneath it was a simple yellow shirt whose hood fell over the back of the jacket. Dark pants and his white sneakers completed his overall 'get-up.'

Tossing things into his locker, Hiro momentarily looking over this or that before ultimately throwing it in, caused him to ignore the ramblings of his friend: Basil Dyne. Basil was certainly darker than Hiro's pale white, Basil's advantage being that he tanned in the past. He always seemed to dress in clothes with a logo or joke no one seemed to get, all centered on a dark shirt, and commonly wore shorts. "…-yhow, do you think its my problem I couldn't show up?" Hiro shut his locker before turning and heading down towards the doors "Probably, but then again, it's usually your fault." He responded, hardly an inkling of what Basil was talking about.

As it turned out, per reminder, Basil was referring to a bout he got into with a friend after accidentally spilling the drink she asked him to hand over to her, on her phone. The argument itself was a matter of "You dropped it" against, "No, you had it then you let go" Basil often found himself in situations like this, some of his friends joked about it saying it was 'his charm'. Despite this, Basil was one of the few close friends Hiro had, growing up together and all that.

"Lab's out." Basil commented, stopping himself mid-sentence to point it out. On their walk home, Hiro and Basil passed Cypher's R&D department or rather the first one. This was the department who essentially kept the sky from falling on Cypher. It was their idea after years of testing to set up the Anemoi – a large reactor and filter of a special energy dubbed momentum. The discovery of this energy itself had seemingly changed the world as a whole. Soon with the addition of momentum into substances several new chemicals had been discovered, as well as increasing the general output of machines.

The Anemoi reactor served as the ring leader in a group of four other reactors, the other four being drastically smaller but equally important nonetheless. Each reactor was connected to the next creating a sort of perpetual energy that carried from one machine to the other to even out the energy in one reactor to make sure there wasn't that big of a gap between it and the others. (Save for Anemoi, due to the size and task it was created for.)

The four lesser reactors of the Anemoi system: Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus. These 5 reactors were what made Cypher the unique city it was – the concentration of energy focused into a device creating perpetual flight fueled with the energy of momentum resulted in what science fiction would call a "Anti-Gravity Device." Supplied by four of these devices, Cypher became the first – and only of its kind to be a true floating city. The original lead scientist, and current Mayor of Cypher, Xerxes – had stated his project was the last gift he could give to the world, the reality of living in heaven.

Basil sighed, "Whenever they're out, that means we have a meeting later that day…damn I was hoping to get some shut-eye…" he responded to himself, almost depressed. "At least this way it's sooner, remember when they woke us all up in the middle of the night?" Hiro added, remembering that horrible event that would later scar any nap he took in the future for fear of the random timing of meetings. Whenever the town got together for a meeting, it was to unveil some new project that had been completed – the motto essentially was "Since you're paying for it, why not see what it does?"

"Damn, Hiro, I need something to keep me up – so just duel me for a bit, got it?" the question was out of the blue, normally Basil only dueled when he changed up his deck – a feat he didn't do that often. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." Each removed a small object from their pocket, putting it on almost like a watch as with the simple push of a button the machine unfolded revealing 5 white zones, a slot containing the user's deck, along with the other necessities of a dueling field.

To people from other cities, dueling typically required a device called a "D-Gazer" which acted as AR glasses, recreating the solid vision of the past. However, for those who grew up in Cypher having been around it all their life they were instantly affected by the ambient momentum in the air. Though not harmful, the energy itself was still a new element that released radioactivity – the body constantly absorbing this radioactivity from such a young age to about 10 years old resulted in no longer needing D-Gazers to see AR as their eyes themselves worked as a fine replacement, some say even better as since a D-Gazer covers only one eye this mutation of their vision affects both eyes and increases the overall quality of it.

Each could see it now, the meter next to the body of the other – displaying simply the name and life point value of that duelist. Hiro being the challenged duelist in this situation would be the one to start. "Get ready, Basil." Hiro commented as he drew his card. "To the field , Burning Knuckler – Headgear!" Hiro's opening monster was that of a boxer close to his height, being rather thin, hinting at his reason for needing such thick head protection. The warrior threw a couple warm up punches before resuming its typical stance.

Burning Knuckler – Headgear

1000 ATK

"The effect of Headgear activates when he's normal summoned, allowing me to send another Knuckler from my deck to the grave – the target in question is _Burning Knuckler – Rope-a-dope."_ Verifying this by holding up the card in question, Hiro quickly added it to his graveyard before setting a pair of cards. "You're up Basil."

Basil seemed grateful it was his turn "It's about time, I was getting bored." He joked, drawing his card. " Basil examined each card in his hand, his earlier matches with Hiro already told him what Headgear's other effect was. "I normal summon my Natural Bone Saurus, then I'll be activating _Underworld Legion _– which not only turns all monsters I control into Zombie-type monsters, but for each zombie on the field my monsters receive 200 ATK." The ground in front of Basil opened up as the skeleton of some type of dinosaur crawled out of the ground, some type of T-Rex but the exact specifications were unknown. The continuous spell seemed to give a dark aura to his monster, making it seem larger than it actually was.

Natural Bone Saurus

1700 ATK - 1900 ATK

"Attack his headgear!" Basil commanded, his monster lunging at the boxer, it's claws leaving a mark across the torso of the fighter before retreating back to Basil's field. "I already know, once per turn your attack position monster isn't destroyed. So you don't have to tell me." Basil concluded his turn by placing a single set card.

Player Hiro

LP 3100

Now Hiro's turn again, he brought forth another Burning Knuckler, this time appearing as a cartoonish man wearing both a stethoscope and a striped black and white uniform. "I normal summon my Burning Knuckler – Doc Ref, but when he is normal summoned, I'm forced to change him to defense position."

_Burning Knuckler - Doc Ref_

1500 DEF

Hiro examined his set card, one of them being reinforced headgear, which would increase the power of his knuckler by 800. He would have used it earlier to take down Basil's monster, but the past experience with Basil lead him to believe he could worsen his situation if he wasted it for just 100 points of damage. The ref gave a quick pat on the back to Headgear, ushering him to go forward "The effect of Doc Ref activates once per turn, increasing the attack of another Knuckler I control by 1000. Now only my selected monster can attack, and should you own no monsters, it cannot attack you directly." Basil nodded as Headgear charged Bone Saurus, its ATK doubled. **[2000 ATK]** a single uppercut knocked the skull off the zombie, sending it rolling as the body quickly fell to the ground afterwards.

Player Basil

LP 3900

Basil revealed his trap "_Avenging Legion_ activates, so I have to thank you for not destroying my monster last turn, because since it was destroyed by battle, I can call two more copies from my deck." The skull that had been knocked off started to rise in the air, a body beneath it now while the body of the original attached a new skull to itself.

Natural Bone Saurus (x 2)

1700 – 2100 ATK

"Very well, but still, because of Doc Ref's effect, I destroyed your monster, so I can add a Burning Knuckler monster to my hand from my deck, my target being counterpunch." Basil chuckled, "Going to hold off the attacks? Funny." He drew his next card, a content look on his face "I activate _Split Power up!_" For the rest of this turn, you take no damage, however all level four or lower Gemini monsters I currently control are treated as if I normal summoned them. In addition I cannot normal summon or set this turn but that shouldn't matter. My first Natural Bone Saurus will attack!" The two traveled together like a pack, Hiro gripped the counterpunch in his hand, but when the first Saurus set its eyes on Doc ref, its jaw tearing through the arm of the ref he released his grip on counterpunch.

"Next because my monster destroyed yours in battle, I activate my Natural Bone Saurus effect, summoning that monster to my side of the field in defense mode – and as a Zombie-type I might add."

Natural Bone Saurus (x 2)

2100 – 2300 ATK

Burning Knuckler – Doc Ref

1500 DEF

"Since you don't take damage for the rest of the turn, and I can't destroy Headgear right now, I'll just end my turn." Basil's turn concluded with a single set card, prompting Hiro to draw. "Not bad at all Basil, you've got me in quite the corner." Basil nodded "You're so modest, I might blush." The two shared a small fit of laughter before Hiro's newest monster – a shorter boxer, the left arm nearly an inch longer than the right stood beside Headgear. "This is one of my newer cards, so don't count on figuring its effect out yet~"

_Burning Knuckler – Low blow_

1200 ATK

A third set card appeared on Hiro's field, still patient enough to not reveak them, "It's your move Basil, make the most out of it."

"I'll try to. My Saurus attacks Low blow!" Hiro held up his card, "Sorry, but Low Blow – when battling an opponent's monster with higher attack? Not only is that attack negated, but until your end phase that monster's attacking power is halved!" Basil found this annoying, sure, because the only way he would be able to take down this monster is if he had one with 1200 ATK, but since it wasn't a complete loss, he still had his second attack. "Fine then I attack headgear with my second monster!" the card Hiro just set, _Covering Up_, activated "Thanks to this trap, no battle damage, no destruction, nothing. All at the cost of 800 ATK points from the attack target meaning that you can't touch my life points this turn." **[200 ATK]**

It was Hiro's turn yet again, now that he was ready to make his move, he was going to take it. "I normal summon my _Burning Knuckler – Diver_!"

_Burning Knuckler – Diver_

1000 ATK

"I overlay my two monsters –" Hiro's voice cut out as the two monsters on his field lost their physical forms and instead became orbs of red light, clustering together until finally forming one entity – A thin steel body, several arms extending out of the torso itself, there had to be 6 arms in total. Though the monster itself wore a hood to cover its face, one could see the glowing blue eyes beneath them, leaving everything else obscured. "-Xyz Summon; _Burning Knuckler – Light Weight Shiva!"_

_Burning Knuckler – Light Weight Shiva_

1700 ATK

ORU 2

"You're still weaker than both my monsters, unless you plan to take out that monster of yours I took." Hiro commanded Shiva to attack anyway, confusing Basil, "By detaching a material from Shiva when it declares an attack, I can destroy one card on the field!" Once Shiva was close enough to be in striking range, he leapt behind one of the Dinosaurs and destroyed Basil's continuous spell, reducing the power of all monsters on his field, with a kick off from the ground Shiva resumed its attack on the first Natural Bone Saurus; the monster's jaw grazing him as it nearly took a chunk out of the boxer's armor "I banish Burning Knuckler- Counter punch from my hand to increase the power of my monster by 1000!" Using the other hands, Shiva unleashed a plethora of strikes into Saurus' body.

Player Basil

LP 2900

"I activate _Highest Bidder_, tributing the headgear on my side of the field to increase my life points by 900!"

Player Hiro

LP 4000

"Your move, Basil." Hiro commented, provoking a grumpy response from his friend "Yeah I know." Basil's attitude however changed when he realized what his draw was. "Ha! You've been showing off your new cards left and right and I haven't shown you anything yet – Go Polymerization!" A fusion? Since when did Basil run those? "I fuse together the two Zombie-type monsters on my field, and as a result I can fusion summon Underworld Dragon, Dragonecro!"

Underworld Dragon, Dragonecro

3000 ATK

"Dragonecro attacks Shiva!" The zombie dragon took up a single hand, colliding them into the torso of Shiva, ripping out what may initially be viewed as the 'soul' of the monster, but in actuality it was rather the shadow.

Player Hiro

LP 2700

"I banish Rope from my graveyard to negate the destruction of my monster!" Hiro quickly retorted, however this only provoked a laugh from Basil "I didn't tell you, but Dragonecro's effect states he cannot destroy any monster in battle!" Hiro sighed; having wasted a good card, since Rope only protected his monster from one battle each turn. "Next I play the other two effects of my Dragon – first, any monster who battles my Dragon has its ATK become zero. Second, when that battle finishes, I can summon one Dark Soul token, whose Attack and level are equal to your monster's prior to the reduction, but since you had an Xyz monster, the level of my monster is 1."

Dark Soul Token

1700 ATK

"My token attacks!" a black variant of Shiva jumped at its defenseless counterpart, minimal effort required to destroy that monster, a single punch, to be exact.

Player Hiro

LP 1000

"Next my set trap – _Cursed Reaper_, activates destroying one monster you control who was not destroyed in battle this turn and inflicting 500 points of damage to you!"

Player Hiro

LP 500

After drawing his card, a look of confidence returned to Hiro's face, "You did well Basil, that dragon of yours is pretty strong, no doubt – but it's over, I've won." Hiro's next monster, a brown clothed Boxer materialized onto the field. "Burning Knuckler – Switchhitter, upon normal summon, revives my Headgear from the grave!"

Burning Knuckler – Switchhitter

1500 ATK

"I overlay my two level four monsters, to bring forth an Xyz summon!" Here comes the finale Basil thought to himself as the two monsters in their energy forms leapt into the sky, growing closer until a single light was formed. "I Xyz summon, _Burning Knuckler – Falcon Cross!" _Hiro's signature monster, a warrior covered in a white and golden steel armor started to drop down from the sky, a pair of golden wings slowing the fall until he hovered just above Hiro's field.

_Burning Knuckler – Falcon Cross_

2000 ATK

ORU 2

"Since it's still my main phase 1, I activate Burning Revenge Punch, because I took damage during your battle phase last turn, I can double the attack power of my Falcon Cross!" **[4000 ATK]**

Falcon didn't need to wait for the command to strike, his wings stretched outwards as he launched towards the dragon, the right arm was pulled at his side, waiting as the monster picked up speed and grew closer "By detaching a material from Falcon Cross when he attacks, his power is increased by 500!" **[4500 ATK]** Basil was the one who opted to speak now "And because you used the effect, any battle damage I take from this battle Is doubled." He added, lowering his duel disk as the knuckler not only landed his hit on the monster, but went through it and struck Basil as well.

Player Basil

LP 0

"Great duel, Basil, almost had me." Hiro commented, walking up to his friend who seemed mixed about it. "Yeah, but you got lucky this time, -" butting in, "but now you're blasting off again?" Basil gave Hiro a swift kick to the shin, instantly shutting him up. "Let's go." "…Yeah…Okay" he managed to say, his voice strained from the sneak attack.

**- ** 1 Over -

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**Card of the Day:**

**Burning Knuckler - Falcon Cross**

Rank 4/ 2000 ATK / 1500 DEF

2 level 4 "Burning Knuckler" Monsters

Once per turn if this face-up Attack Position monster would be destroyed by battle: You can negate the destruction of this monster, also any battle damage you take from this battle is doubled. Once per turn, when this card declares an attack: You can Detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; This card gains 500 ATK and any battle damage your opponent takes from battles involving this card are doubled.

**Well I hoped you enjoyed it, any tips, ideas, reflections would be greatly appreciated - Hopefully I'll see you all next time.**


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